Singapore – Free Practice 3: Ferrari Locks the Fastest Times

This third practice session in Singapore is the last to take place during the day. The drivers did not waste time getting on the track for an initial check-up lap. It proved beneficial for Pierre Gasly, who reported that his car was leaning to the right. This resulted in a complete rebalancing of the car, causing him to lose a significant portion of the session.

It took 10 minutes before seeing the first times posted: although Kimi Räikkönen set the initial benchmark, it was Sebastian Vettel who took the lead, by only 4 thousandths of a second. However, these times were not very representative as they were in the 1:40 range, whereas the future Sauber driver had managed to set a time of 1:38.6 last night.

To see the first Red Bull on track, it took 25 minutes into the session, just like for the two McLarens. The two orange cars showed a decent pace, placing 6th (Fernando Alonso) and 9th (Stoffel Vandoorne). It is interesting to note that Red Bull sent both its drivers out on the soft tires, the hardest available this weekend.

Ten minutes later, Sebastian Vettel decided to raise the stakes, bringing his best time to 1:38.054. The other drivers followed the same trend, successively improving their lap times. But Kimi Räikkönen was pushed back by three-tenths, while the two Mercedes were closely grouped half a second behind Sebastian Vettel.

In the final minutes of the session, the drivers completed their last simulations before qualifying. But the most important thing was to avoid making irreparable mistakes just before qualifying. Once again, Max Verstappen expressed his dissatisfaction regarding his Renault engine.

So it’s Ferrari leading, far ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull. Will it be the same in the evening, after the qualifications?

FP3 CLASSIFICATION: @ScuderiaFerrari are looking very strong ahead of qualifying #SingaporeGP 🇸🇬 #F1 pic.twitter.com/phSi8bBX62

— Formula 1 (@F1) 15 septembre 2018